UWFPS Media Coverage

People in Salt Lake City are very aware of air quality issues that occur during inversion events. As a result, there is great local interest in the work that we’re doing here. To keep people informed, we held a media day on Wednesday, February 1. Interest was particularly high because we were in the midst of the strongest inversion event so far this year.

Steve talks with the media

Representatives from several media outlets came to visit the airplane and interview the scientists and pilots about the project. In the following days there were many stories in the local Salt Lake City news about both the aircraft operations and the ground-based measurements being made.

Led by researchers from CIRES and NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Division, the Utah Winter Fine Particulate Study (UWFPS) will use scientific instruments aboard a NOAA Twin Otter aircraft to investigate chemistry that impacts wintertime air quality in and around Salt Lake City. Research flights are scheduled to start January 2017, with additional ground-based measurements at the University of Utah and neighboring Utah and Cache Valleys made possible through collaboration with investigators from the Utah Department of Air Quality, U.S. EPA, and several other research institutions. Click here for more information!